Story Highlights

SOUTH BEND – The signs went up in Notre Dame’s football building about a third of the way through the 2012 season.

“Ignore the Noise,” they read.

Outside the building, a national debate raged about the undefeated Irish and their relative merits when compared to fellow national championship contenders. Ultimately, a 12-0 Notre Dame team would fall with a mighty thud to Alabama, 42-14, in the BCS Championship in South Florida.

Turning inward and locking arms, however, helped ward off nagging reality until that eventual letdown.

“Notre Dame is a place that invites a lot of polarizing thoughts, and we’re used to people disliking us or people really loving us and there really being no middle ground with that,” says ESPN radio host Mike Golic Jr., a starting offensive lineman on the 2012 team. “You find out, whether the talk is good or bad, none of it is really beneficial when you listen to it.”

Six years later, under a four-team playoff system and a largely churned coaching staff, coach Brian Kelly has guided unbeaten Notre Dame to seven straight wins and the No. 3 national ranking. Along the way, the Irish have used four one-possession wins to claw their way from a season-opening No. 11 slot in the Amway Coaches Poll.

Manti Te'o finished runner-up for the 2012 Heisman Trophy and helped lead the Irish to the BCS title game.(Photo: Jeff Gross, Getty Images)

Similarities to 2012 are becoming impossible to ignore, especially as second-ranked Ohio State became the latest higher-rated program to lose over the weekend. Back then, a stout defense led by Heisman Trophy runner-up Manti Te'o helped the Irish grind out five one-possession wins over their first nine games as the rest of the field slowly faded from view.

“It’s such a different club; it was constructed differently (in 2012),” Kelly says. “It was largely put together on the backs of a great defense and ball-control offense and slugging it out to the very end. Small ball, if you will. We won some very, very close games.”

The 2012 Irish won by an average score of 26.8-10.3 during their 12-0 run. This year’s 7-0 start has come with an average margin of 32.6-18.7 after Notre Dame claimed its first three victories (over Michigan, Ball State and Vanderbilt) by a combined 20 points.

“This (team) has a much more complementary group in terms of offense, defense and the way they work,” Kelly says. “I think the similarities are that they know how to win and the things that you have to do in terms of week-to-week in your preparation.”

FLASHBACKS FROM AFAR

A fixture on the Fighting Irish offensive line, Zack Martin has become a perennial Pro Bowler for the Cowboys.(Photo: David Zalubowski, AP)

Zack Martin has yet to miss a start or a Pro Bowl since the Dallas Cowboys drafted him in the first round in 2014. The Bishop Chatard graduate also tries not to miss any Notre Dame football games as he follows his alma mater from afar.

“I watch every week,” Martin says. “If we’re on the road, we’re usually flying during that time, but if we’re at home I’m able to watch them.”

As the former star left tackle on the 2012 Irish team, he sees the parallels with the current edition.

“Very similar,” he says. “They’ve had some tight ones. Sometimes that’s the best thing for you, when you can find a way to win those tight ones and continue stringing those games along. Sometimes those close, hard-fought wins are what you need to keep things going.“

The flashbacks to 2012 really took hold two Saturdays ago during Notre Dame’s 19-14 comeback win over Pittsburgh. After trailing throughout the afternoon against the unranked Panthers, Ian Book found Miles Boykin for the go-ahead touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter.

With that, Notre Dame managed to avoid a season-crushing upset after trailing for just two minutes, 13 seconds total through its first six games — all in the first quarter of an eventual 56-27 romp at Wake Forest.

It took three overtimes, a missed field goal and an officiating oversight for the 2012 edition to survive a similar test at home against Pitt in Game No. 9.

“The game that we really should have lost that year was against Pittsburgh,” Martin says. “They missed a chip-shot field goal. That was a classic Notre Dame-Pitt game. We always had tough games with them. They always bring their best.”

Golic Jr. found himself recalling the 2012 marathon as well during this year’s Oct. 13 battle.

“The game against Pitt, how close that was, that brought back some memories that I would rather not relive,” Golic says with a chuckle. “It’s just a reminder of how fleeting it is and how quickly all that can change and it’s a special thing you get to be a part of when you get to this point of the season.”

Such reminders, he says, are helpful.

“It’s always a good reminder to taste a little bit of your own blood, and quite honestly to get to do it and still win,” he says. “You don’t have to go in and assess all this having had your season just careen off a cliff because you lost a game. You still have a goose egg in the loss column and now you get to correct all those mistakes probably as if you lost because I’m sure the coaching staff is going to let them know that this could have and should have been a game that we lost.”

Martin has developed relationships with some of the current Irish offensive linemen through working summer camps over the years, but it’s quarterbacks coach Tommy Rees with whom he stays in closest contact. Rees shared quarterback duties with Everett Golson back in 2012.

“That’s the biggest similarity: Tommy Rees is (helping) the team now as a coach,” Martin says. “Tommy was one of my roommates all through college, so I stay in touch with him a bunch. It’s fun to have him there and stay connected to the team. They’re running the ball and controlling the clock, so they’re fun to watch.”

Golic Jr. notes the quick-strike capability of this year’s team, especially since Book replaced senior quarterback Brandon Wimbush as the starter for Week 4 at Wake Forest, as a primary difference between the two championship contenders.

“I think you just see little bit more balance and control now, right?” Golic says. “It’s efficient. There’s a lot of those pass options off the run in this. There’s a lot of short passes, but we’ve also seen that deep ball.”

While first-round tight end Tyler Eifert and 5-11 junior receiver T.J. Jones shared the team lead in 2012 with 50 receptions and four touchdown grabs, the current edition has seen Book spread the ball around to as many 10 receivers in a single game (Stanford).

“I remember going to watch practice during Michigan week and just being overwhelmed by the size,” Golic Jr. says. “When you look at Chase Claypool and Miles Boykin and Alize Mack, you just are overwhelmed by how much size they have and how skilled they all are.”

All three are listed at 6-4 and tower over most opposing defensive backs.

“I figured, ‘All right, if we could get the ball into the hands of those guys — heck, if you could just get it close — you’re going to have a chance every time,’ “ Golic Jr. says. “Having Ian now, I think, allows us to better use those weapons just because he’s been accurate getting the ball downfield. He spreads it around to all those different playmakers, so you keep everyone happy and involved in the offense. You see the world of difference that’s made.”

THE PITT SPRINGBOARD

Like they did in 2012, the Fighting Irish survived a close call against Pitt.(Photo: Matt Cashore, Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports)

While the current Irish had a bye week to gather themselves after their Pitt scare, the 2012 team played at Boston College the following week. That 21-6 win sent them on a three-game sprint to the finish line in which they posted a 20.7-point average margin of victory.

Could this latest close call with Pitt similarly propel the 2018 Irish through the final five games on their schedule, starting with a neutral-site game against a weakened Navy in San Diego on Saturday night?

“It’s definitely possible,” says Braxston Cave, starting center on the 2012 team. “Having those close games and pulling through them, it just shows you’re capable of it. You’re getting put in those positions, and now these guys know, ‘Hey, we’ve been here before. Let’s rally. We can make it happen.’“

Cave, now serving as a general manager for Lippert Components and overseeing three leisure-vehicle component facilities in Goshen-Elkhart area, remembers that feeling well.

“It was the same thing for us,” Cave says. “We got put in those tight games and we pulled them out and it just boosts your confidence more and more. Getting to where they’re at, being undefeated, (coming off) a bye week and getting to recoup and heal, I think that sets them up to really take off the way we did.”

Notre Dame's offense has gone to a new level with Ian Book under center.(Photo: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports)

The trick, once again, could be to ignore the braying of the pundits who are questioning everything from Notre Dame’s strength of record — which ranks first nationally, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index — to the sustainability of Book’s 75.2 completion percentage, which has him on a school-record pace.

While Michigan and Stanford rank fifth and 23rd, respectively, in the latest Amway Coaches Poll, none of the Irish’s remaining opponents have better than a 34.1 percent chance of springing the upset, according to FPI. That’s unranked USC at the Coliseum on Thanksgiving weekend.

“I think people are overlooking some of their opponents,” Martin says of the Irish. “They’ve had some tough games. I think they have a real chance to make a run at this thing. I think if they win out, they’ve got a pretty good case to be in there.”

In the meantime, ignore the noise.

“Playing at Notre Dame, there’s obviously a lot of people who are going to be very critical when you’re not doing so well and praise you when you are doing well,” Martin says. “No matter what it is, block it out, stay on task, take it one week at a time and focus on the game. Don’t focus on what people are saying outside the building.”